Movie-Inspired Debate Over “Euthanasia”
is Absurd
“Million Dollar Baby” Deserves an Oscar -- but the
Medical Ethics Debate Has Gone Off the Track
by James J Murtagh, M.D.

When they open the
envelope for “Best Picture” at the Oscars tonight, I’ll be rooting hard
for Million Dollar Baby -- the dazzling new Clint Eastwood film
about a woman left paralyzed after sustaining a neck injury during a
boxing match. Because I like the movie so much, it’s no fun to report that
both the film and its critics have made a major mistake: they forgot that
it’s illegal for doctors to treat alert, rational patients against their
will. Somehow, the film distorts the medical aspects of end-of-life
decision-making almost beyond recognition....(full
article)

February 26

Europe to Bush: “Hands Off Iran”?
by Mike Whitney

All in all, it was
the most minutely choreographed tour in the history of the Republic.
Regrettably, very little was actually accomplished. The Transatlantic
Alliance continues to dither on life-support and the savvy Europeans show
no interest in Bush’s high-minded rhetoric. True, there were plenty of
smiley photo-ops and lofty speeches, but behind the back-slapping and
handshakes, the main parties remain as divided as ever. The illusion of a
“shared vision” was only held together by announcing agreements that had
been worked out weeks earlier. The commitment to provide greater security
for Russia’s “loose-nukes” was one such agreement, as was Chirac’s pledge
to take a strong stand on removing Syria’s 1,500 man army from Lebanon.
Similarly, Schroeder’s support for a “non-nuclear” Iran may look like a
Bush triumph, but, in fact, Europe has already done everything possible to
dissuade Iran from developing nukes, including lavish economic incentives
and a stepped up inspections regime that exceeds Iran’s treaty obligations
under the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) These deals were already hammered
out long before Bush left Washington. So, what new agreement did the
Bush-trek produce?
(full article)

The Tsunami,
Religion, Science and Our Politicians by Lenni Brenner

Brenner discusses the deep religiosity of
Americans, the attack on teaching of evolution, geology and physics in
schools, and why science buffs must organize to force our politicians to
educate their ignorant voters regarding the geology behind natural
disasters such as tsunamis....(full
article)

Teaching Science in an Anti-Empirical
Empireby Mark W. Bradley

I've
often heard it said that “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but I,
for one, find this platitude insulting and offensive. Not only is it
ageist and speciesist, it’s nothing but a load of old hogwash. Quadrupedal
senior citizens can be reeducated and retrained. But first they
must undergo the difficult and often disorienting process of de-education.
This involves a complete and thorough divestiture of outdated notions
acquired in the canine subject’s formative years, mostly as a byproduct of
painstakingly learning the old tricks they erroneously assumed would serve
them well right up until the moment they were subterraneously reunited
with their favorite dirt-encrusted calcium treats. The same holds true for
us increasingly featherless bipeds as we toddle off into the
sulfur-dioxide-enhanced sunset of our iron-pyrite years. More and more, we
discover to our chagrin that the things we learned in school turn out not
to be true at all. Were we wrong to spend so much time studying all those
discredited theories like Darwinism, Humanism and Dialectical Materialism?
Wouldn’t we have been better off spending our time hanging out with the
really cool guys, the guys who never even bothered to go to
class because they were too busy packing their noses with blow, drinking
bong-water, branding each other with red-hot coat hangers, and spanking
their monkeys blindfolded in open coffins? (full
article)

Torture’s
Our Business ... and Business is Goodby Ken Sanders

Who could forget President Bush's repeated
invocations of liberty, freedom, and human rights in his second
inauguration speech? It warmed the cockles of the heart to hear our
beloved President wax poetic about the grand ideals for which America
stands. It chills the soul to contrast Bush's lofty rhetoric with the
awful truth perpetuated by our government. The truth is, our government
condones, promotes and even celebrates torture....(full
article)

A Kick in the Pantsby Sheila Samples

It's unfortunate that Bush doesn't
understand what is happening in the world he so arrogantly believes he
owns. The European trip he's on now is a barely concealed attempt to
strong-arm support for his upcoming invasion of Iran. An invasion,
according to former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter, which Bush
has already approved, and is slated for June 2005....(full
article)

A woman’s right to
abortion is one of the few issues where the Democrats can still claim that
they look different from the Republicans. But for how much longer? In the
aftermath of their loss to George W. Bush and the Republicans in the 2004
election, Democratic Party leaders like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
are pushing a new strategy on abortion rights -- finding “common ground”
with anti-abortionists. And mainstream women’s groups are marching right
with them....(full article)

Heroesby Stephen Gowans

From the country
that brought you the Axis of Evil, Outposts of Tyranny and
innumerable sanctimonious complaints about the real and imagined human
rights abuses of official enemies, comes a new production of:
Truncheon-wielding US soldiers in “We Want To Be Your Back Door Men” doing
literally to assorted foreigners what successive administrations have
being doing figuratively to Third World populations for decades -- giving
it to them up the wazoo....(full article)

Syria Out of Lebanon and Israel Out of
Syriaby Ahmed Amr

This is a moment of truth for all
belligerent parties in the Middle East. Hariri’s assassination has once
again focused the world’s attention on the need to get some major
Levantine matters resolved and soon. The quickest solution to these
“complex problems” is to shed all complexity and keep it simple. Get
Syrian forces - including intelligence operatives -- out of Lebanon. And
compel the Israelis to remove all settlements and end the occupation of
the Golan Heights....(full article)

When is Genocide Not Genocide?by Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

When
is the heinous crime of “genocide” not “genocide”? Perhaps, when everyone
of the targeted national, racial, religious, or regional population is
not yet exterminated. Henceforth, “genocide” appears to be the case
when it can be demonstrated that the population under attack has been
totally destroyed. To prove that genocide has occurred, there must be no
survivors. In the case of the Sudan, according to the report of the
just-concluded UN investigating commission on the character of the
slaughter of the African population in the Dafur region by the
Khartoum-based Arab regime and its Janjaweed militia allies, such an
outcome hasn’t yet occurred – therefore, there is “no genocide”; at least
not yet. Instead, there have been what the commission categorizes, quite
curiously, as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed by the
regime. For the UN, Khartoum has apparently not yet crossed that
“dreadful” threshold into the realm of completing its designated mission,
its “final solution”, in Dafur. Until this happens, the Dafur report
meanwhile acknowledges that 70,000 Darfuri have been killed during the war
waged on them by Khartoum while two million others have been forced into
exile, many of them in the neighboring state of Chad. Equally
contradictorily, or so it appears, the UN notes that the “killing of
civilians, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and
other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and enforced displacement” are
taking place in Dafur. So, even though these appalling crimes have been
indisputably and systematically carried out against the Dafuri, as a
people, by the Sudanese state and its allies, it is extraordinary that
the UN does not think that these “amount to genocide.”....(full
article)

Objectivity in Independent Media
Part 2: “What You See is What Exists”by Kim Petersen & B. J. Sabri

On 10
November 2004, PINR published, “The
Threat of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Revolutionary Movement”. The
opening paragraph read: “On October 29, 2004, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden released a new videotape, revealing the first images of the leader
in more than a year. The video offered proof that bin Laden is alive and
healthy with access to modern technology. The resurgence of Osama bin
Laden emphasizes the threat to the United States and its interests still
posed by Islamic revolutionaries.” An objective reading of Erich
Marquardt’s analysis and the quotation provided would reveal that PINR
is either gullible or guilty of compliance with corporate elites. This is
because that analysis does not differ one iota from the logic and thought
of the corporate media and its systematic abuse of the majority’s apathy
for world politics and history to spread disinformation....(full
article)

The James Guckert/James Gannon, Fake
Reporter
in the White House Question is Moot!by John Tully

A weekend journalism-school reporter, using
a fake name, was given access to the President of the United States at
White House press briefings before he even worked for any news
organization. He claims that he has seen a confidential, so-called C.I.A.
document that reveals the name of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife
and shows her recommending him for the trip to Niger to investigate
yellowcake uranium sales to the Iraqis. It
turns out that Secret Service has been waving James Guckert by the
guardhouse for two and a half years and once inside, he became Jeff
Gannon. He wrote for a fake website, Talon News, run by Republican
strategist Bobby Eberle and the organization GOPUSA....(full
article)

Christian Right Mum on Gannon Affairby Bill Berkowitz

Why have the "traditional family values"
folks erected a wall of silence around the Gannon scandal? (full
article)Let’s ‘C’
by William Fisher

Let’s C.
C is for Cat? Car? Connecticut?
No. Not even close.
Culture?
You’re getting warmer. Hint: You wear it.
Aha, the dreaded “C-word”: CONDOM!
The mere utterance is likely to lead to another battle in the culture
wars.
But there: I’ve said it.
Which is more than the Bush Administration is prepared to do.
That’s what I discovered while surfing another bunch of Cs -- the CDC:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....(full
article)

February 24

Pyongyang Waiting for the Springby Gavan McCormack

With the lunar New Year in Northeast Asia,
the darkness of winter recedes, a pale sun gains strength, daylight hours
lengthen and the earth stirs. However, in one of the bleakest and coldest
corners of the region, North Korea, the land is still hard-frozen, spring
is far off, and political frosts have not melted for more than half a
century. Yet all extremes are eventually exhausted and yield, as yang to
yin -- and even for North Korea that time may not be far off....(full
article)

Is This Your Ownership Society?by Holly Sklar

Would you invest in
a company that cut your wages, laid off your cousin, polluted your
neighborhood, cut your health insurance and raided your retirement fund?
If so, you'll love President Bush's “ownership society.” At a time of
rising support for socially responsible business, Bush's ownership society
offers less social responsibility, less opportunity and accelerating dis-investment
in the future....(full article)

Remember Afghanistan?by Ken Sanders

Does anyone remember
Afghanistan, the first stop in Bush's “War On Terror” world tour? It
wouldn't be at all surprising if no one did since only Newsweek,
the Associated Press, and the Washington Post have full-time
reporters in the country. With hundreds of reporters on the ground in
Iraq, we hear daily about the successes and failures there, the atrocities
committed there by insurgents and U.S. forces alike, as well as constant
prognostications about the future of Iraq and its people. When it comes to
Afghanistan, however, the home of Al-Qaeda, we hear almost nothing. Pity.
There is a lot to be heard....(full
article)

Ex-Presidents as Pitchmen: Touting Good
Deedsby Norman Solomon

An Associated
Press dispatch from a Thai fishing village summed up the media spin a
few days ago: “Former President Bill Clinton’s voice trembled with emotion
as he and George H.W. Bush put aside their once-bitter political
rivalry...” Ever since his initial checked-out responses to the
catastrophic tsunami two months ago drew worldwide derision, the current
president has largely relied on two predecessors to do the image-repair
chores. In effect, an ad hoc PR outfit -- Bush, Bush & Clinton -- has the
three partners laboring to make themselves look good as compassionate
great nephews of Uncle Sam. But there are deeper messages and functions
here than mere image-polishing.....(full
article)

In the president’s
State of the Union address this year, he pledged again to fight the
growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mr. Bush asked Congress to reauthorize the Ryan
White CARE Act “to encourage prevention and provide care and treatment”
for those infected with the disease. He also stated that “we must focus
our efforts on fellow citizens with the highest rates of new cases:
African-American men and women.” But when his 2006 budget proposal was
released two weeks later, a very different picture emerged....(full
article)

Progressive Surrender, Progressive
Renewalby Dan Raphael

The basis of
progressive politics is commitment to democracy. The root of democracy is
the demos -- the undifferentiated mass of common people. Without
this commitment, this basis, progressive politics reveals itself to be
anything but progressive. Such toxic variants of self-described
progressivism are not hard to find, and their effects undercut the hopes
and work of progressives everywhere....(full
article)

Diagnosing the Green Party: Narcissism
Runs Rampant by Joshua Frank

The ashes of the
2004 election battle have finally settled, and sadly the Green Party is
buried in the rubble still grasping for air. Even so, if you have heard
any of the sordid mutterings from staunch Green loyalists, they are
spinning quite a different tale....(full
article)

February 23

The Gray Lineby Adam Engel

A woman's husband is
murdered and she is raped by a man who'd been planning to kill her
husband, rape her and take her property for some time. All the while she
was innocently going about her life. Her rapist decides to “marry” the
woman (that is, make her his servant), who is now a widow because of him,
“adopt” the children she'd conceived before the rape, and of course raise
the child conceived during the rape. He moves into her home, treats her
and her children like beasts, beats them, abuses them, all the while
doting on the child conceived by force, the child he loves and planned to
provide for from the beginning. Certain, though not all “neighbors” at
first think the woman is lucky her rapist didn't kill her and her children
like he did her husband, and recognize the rapists’ right to her house,
her property, her children, whom he abuses, and of course, his child
conceived by rape. What no one suspected is that the woman and the
children of her first husband are fierce, intelligent fighters, and keenly
aware of the injustice that has been done to them....(full
article)

A Season of Depressing Political Re-runsby John Chuckman

Recent political events resemble nothing so
much as re-runs of movies that should never have been released the first
time. Bush
has gone to Europe to “ease tensions” in the NATO alliance. Of course,
those very tensions were his work entirely, but a sense of the ridiculous
never discourages a Jehovah's Witness with a long list of house calls to
make. If you read the fine print
under the marketing blurbs for Bush's trip -- much like the
microscopically-printed disclaimer for a new prescription drug that hasn't
undergone adequate testing -- you will see that Bush's effort is directed
at nothing more than securing European help in the mess he has made of
Iraq. This is just a new, more subdued episode of previous Bush whining
about being “either with us or against us.” He wants a shred of legitimacy
for what he's done, and he wants other people to help pay his enormous
bills. Fortunately, it appears at this writing that Europe, while
listening politely and offering a cookie to soothe Bush's whining, is not
about to alter its sensible course....(full
article)

The Incredible Shrinking Dollarby Mike Whitney

The Bush Euro-junket is taking place just as
the economic storm clouds are thickening over the Fatherland. On Tuesday
the market plummeted another 175 points mainly due to soaring oil prices
(tipping the $50 mark) and a surging Euro headed for the stratosphere.
While Bush ambles around Europe waxing on about Camus and Voltaire (I kid
you not), America’s tenuous economic plight is becoming alarmingly more
apparent. The world has taken stock of the administration’s profligate
spending and, now, Central Banks across the globe are shunning the dollar
for the more stable Euro. The BBC says that a “poll carried out by Central
Banking Publications found that 39 of the 65 banks surveyed were raising
their Euro holdings, with 29 cutting back on the US dollar.” Banks are
voting with their feet, and the results may spell doom for the Bush
plutocracy. As Paul Craig Roberts so aptly put it, “The world is tired of
mopping up America’s red ink.”....(full
article)

“America... just a nation of two hundred million used car
salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about
killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.”

-- Hunter S. Thompson
(artwork by Bradley Russell)

February 20

Great Media Critics:Intrepid for Journalism and Labor
Rightsby Norman Solomon

When I think of newspaper journalists who
became authors and had enormous impacts on media criticism in the United
States, two names come to mind. One is George Seldes. As a young man, he
covered the First World War and then reported on historic events in Europe
for the Chicago Tribune from 1919 until 1928. Seldes quit the paper
and went on to blaze a trail as an independent journalist -- ready, able
and eager to challenge media business-as-usual. Naturally, he earned
hostility from the kind of media magnates he skewered in Lords of the
Press. The renowned historian Charles A. Beard called that 1938 book
“a grand job.” Forty-five years later, another emigre from newsrooms wrote
a book that turned out to have profound effects on critical thinking about
media. When The Media Monopoly first appeared in 1983, the media
establishment and many of its employees shrugged; if they paid any
attention, it was usually just long enough to dismiss Ben Bagdikian’s
warning about consolidation of media ownership as alarmist....(full
article)

Farewell Hope: The Hogtying
of the Deaniacsby Joshua Frank

The Democrats have
finally accomplished something. Yes, I’m talking about Howard Dean’s
latest victory, but it’s not what you think. Dean’s scoring of the DNC
chair isn’t a win for progressives. Nope, it’s a triumph for the
establishment. The Beltway savants have successfully muted the only
vibrant contingent within their frail party. The Deaniacs have been
corralled....
(full article)

In his second term,
President Bush continues to try and spend the “political capital” that he
claims to have earned by defeating Sen. John Kerry last year. And who
better to help the president than Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal
Reserve Bank? Officially, he now backs Bush’s plan for younger workers to
invest, voluntarily, about two-thirds of their Social Security payroll
taxes in private accounts....(full
article)

If you like the way
Wade Horn is doing business with right wing pundits, in the words of Al
Jolson, the popular singer of the 1920s, “You ain't seen nothing yet!” In
late-December, the Washington Times reported that in addition to
his hefty responsibilities as the Assistant Secretary for Children and
Families in the Administration for Children and Families, at the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Horn will now be in charge of
drumming up support for, and doling out grants to, abstinence-only sexual
education programs....(full article)

Honoring Rafiq Hariri’s Legacyby Ahmed Amr

By
the end of the Lebanese civil war, Beirut was a mirror image of Grozny.
Fifteen years of civil war and two Israeli invasions left the country in a
state of total anarchy. Proud middle class families were reduced to abject
poverty. Such was the level of despair that desperate young men took to
playing Russian roulette -- with real bullets. . . . Fast forward to 2005
and behold the sight of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese -- Christians,
Muslims and Druze -- marching together in a funerary procession to bury
Rafiq El Hariri. Because of the size of the crowd, it took hours to move the
ex-Prime Minister’s remains from his family home in Krayton to the final
burial place in the newly built Mohammed El Amin Mosque....(full
article)

February 18

Poor, White and Pissed:
A Guide to the White Trash Planet for Urban Liberalsby Joe Bageant

If
you are reading this it is very likely that you are a liberal, maybe even
an outright screaming burn down the goddam country commie --in which case
I say, “Come sit by me comrade! (Especially if you are a blonde.) Like
most lefties you probably live in an urban area, or someplace with
reasonable cultural diversity. More than likely you are educated and can
read this without moving your lips. Maybe you even live in the
freethinking People’s Republic of Berkeley, or bustle along under the
fabled lights of Manhattan where you can see independent films and buy
such things as leeks and soy milk at your grocery store. I, however, live
in a town where it is easier to find chitterlings, ponhaus and souse in
the grocery store than a leek … and where Smokey and the Bandit
still plays to packed movie houses year after year. My hometown’s claim to
fame is the 1983 “Rhinehart Tire Fire” in which some five million
discarded tires burned for nine months, gaining Winchester, Virginia
national news coverage and EPA superfund cleanup status. The smoke plume
was visible in satellite earth photos, the cleanup took 18 years and the
fire stands as my hometown’s biggest event of the Twentieth Century. As
for intellectual life, this is a town where damned few residents ever
heard of, say, Susan Sontag. Even though our local newspaper editor did
manage a post mortem editorial on Sontag, which basically said: Goodbye
you piece of New York Jewish commie shit!, most people reading the paper
at their breakfast tables around town were asking themselves, “Who the
hell is Susan Sontag?” They would ask the same thing about
Daniel Barenboim or Hunter S. Thompson
because those figures have never been on Oprah. Our general ambience was
well summed up by a visiting Atlanta lawyer who looked around town and
observed: “Dumb lordee I reckon!” This from a guy who’s seen a lot of dumb
crackers. Laugh if you want, but this is the red state American heartland
everybody is talking about these days....(full
article)

Social
Security and Bush’s War Budgetby Joel Wendland

With Bush propagandizing about the fiscal
“crisis” of Social Security and his critics on the left and right pointing
to a bloated $600 billion budget deficit, it is time to look at where all
the money went. Clinton’s presidency closed with a $300 billion surplus
and rosy dreams about paying down the national debt. (Of course, billions
of that surplus were created by cutting or eliminating programs related to
welfare.) So where did all the money go? And why did it go there? (full
article)

February 17

(The Anti-Empire Report)
What Do the Imperial Mafia Really
Want?by William Blum

After
what was humorously designated an “election” in Iraq, there was a marked
increase in calls for the United States to announce a timetable for
withdrawal from that unhappy land. Senator Kennedy, The Brookings
Institution, and a British government official were amongst numerous of
the influential class to propose such action. The rationale behind the
timing of these requests, one would assume, is that now that Iraq has
displayed a measure of what the White House calls “democracy”, the United
States can and should declare, once again, “mission accomplished” and
leave, without loss of face. Such a proposal might make sense if this
thing called democracy was indeed the reason the United States invaded and
occupied Iraq. But the fact that Washington officials do not miss an
opportunity to make it abundantly clear that they have no intention of
leaving in the foreseeable future reveals how unenlightened are these
calls for departure; for the reasons the US is in Iraq have very little to
do with democracy, by whatever description....(full article)

The United States’ Hypocritical Nuclear
Policy by Ken Sanders

With all of the recent talk about North
Korea's not-so-surprising admission that it possesses nuclear weapons, as
well as Iran's refusal to cease its pursuit of nuclear technology, it is
worth considering the United States’ own policy. That policy, such as it
is, basically boils down to this: the U.S. and its proxies (e.g., Israel)
may possess nuclear weapons. Everybody else is a global threat....(full
article)

Shadowboxing: The Imminent Risk of
Non-Nuclear States by Kamyar Arasteh

Recent months have
witnessed a flurry of news regarding Iran’s nuclear energy program and the
Western reactions to it. Once again the specter of weapons of mass
destruction is raised, as it was in the run-up to the war on Iraq. Talks
of military strikes, invasion, and regime change have come up.
Bunker-busting missiles changed hands between U.S. and Israel
ostentatiously, giving credence to the reported plans for destroying
putative underground facilities. These developments are extremely
alarming. The historically unstable region has been pushed to the limit by
the additional chaos ensuing the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. Aggressive action, such as a military strike, against Iran could
have tremendous, unforeseen consequences. It can further destabilize the
region and easily spill over to other parts of the world. Yet, Iran and
the U.S. seem locked-in, helplessly observing the growing tension spiral
out of control....(full article)

Attacking Our Memoryby John Pilger

How does thought
control work in societies that call themselves free? Why are famous
journalists so eager, almost as a reflex, to minimize the culpability of
political leaders such as Bush and Blair who share responsibility for the
unprovoked attack on a defenseless people, for laying to waste their land
and for killing at least 100,000 people, most of them civilians, having
sought to justify this epic crime with demonstrable lies? What does BBC
reporter describe the invasion of Iraq as “a vindication for Blair”? Why
have broadcasters never associated the British or American state with
terrorism? Why have such privileged communicators, with unlimited access
to the facts, lined up to describe an unobserved, unverified,
illegitimate, cynically manipulated election, held under a brutal
occupation, as “democratic” with the pristine aim of being “free and
fair”? (full article)

Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Hardly
Mainstreamby Gene C. Gerard

President Bush has re-nominated seven
candidates for the federal appeals courts. Each was blocked by Senate
Democrats during his first term. He also sent back to the Senate five
other nominees for the federal appeals courts whose confirmations were
slowed because of Democratic concerns regarding their legal backgrounds.
Bush has accused Democrats of blocking votes on so many of his nominations
that they have created “judicial emergencies.”....(full
article)

McLibel Overturned: Strasbourg Denies
McJusticeby Matt Reichel

Earlier this week,
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg overturned the infamous
McLibel ruling. In McLibel, a British activist couple was sued for
basically stating what everyone in this world already knows to be true.
That is: McDonald’s food is horrendous. It is undeniably horrible for
one’s health to frequently eat at the world’s largest restaurant chain. I
have traveled extensively through four continents, and talked to people of
many political stripes: conservatives, liberals, communists, anarchists,
right wing idiots, etc. In this time, I’ve never heard anyone try to claim
that McDonald’s food is anything other than crap. One needn’t even bother
with digging into the numbers: 99% of this world wouldn’t even ask me to
show them nutritional information in order for them to believe that this
food can pose a threat to one’s well-being. In fact, this can be
considered one of those self-evident truths: there are very few things
about this world that we can take for granted, I will admit, but the fact
that the burger monolith serves out disgusting, pre-processed, dirty and
dangerously addictive grease is one such thing....(full
article)

Assassinating Al-Hariri Fits Washington’s
Planby Mike Whitney

To understand who assassinated Rafik al-Hariri
we don’t need to look any further than the $1.5 billion US Embassy
currently under construction in Baghdad. The new embassy, the largest of
its kind in the world, will facilitate 1,800 employees and serve as the
regional nerve center for American political and economic activity. What
does this have to do with al Hariri?
(full
article)

The New Inquisitionby Lydia Howell

Last week, New York
City civil liberties attorney and National Lawyers Guild member Lynne
Stewart faced a guilty verdict on the vaguest of charges: conspiracy. It's
a prosecutor’s favorite charge because so little actual evidence is
required. What does Stewart now face up to 35 years in prison for? The
charges read: “conspiracy to prepare to assist terrorists” and “conspiracy
to give material aid to terrorists.” What did Stewart actually do? Her
job....(full article)

The Republican War
by Am Johal

Recently in
Vancouver, former US Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey addressed a small crowd
and clearly described US human rights violations and direct violations of
Geneva conventions in Iraq. He talked about how the military taught
recruits to hate another culture and did not give them the tools to
appreciate or understand adequately those who they were being sent to kill
and to liberate....(full article)

Hunting Hillary Clintonby Bill Berkowitz

“Stop
Her Now,” is the name of the new Web site soon to be launched by Arthur
Finkelstein, the chief political guru of New York Governor George Pataki,
and one of the country's most successful yet least known political
consultants/spin doctors. The “Her” at StopHerNow.com is New York Senator
Hillary Clinton. According to the New York Post, Finkelstein, the
longtime master of the political attack ad, hopes the site will raise as
much as $10 million from Hillary-haters across the nation and provide a
gathering point for conservative activists working to defeat her in next
year's Senatorial election. Hillary's defeat would likely derail any
presidential aspirations she might have....(full
article)

After millions of tax dollars were spent
investigating how Halliburton ended up being awarded billions of dollar
worth of no-bid contracts in Iraq, the Government Accounting Office
determined that the company should never have been awarded the contracts
in the first place. In response to those
findings, Cheney and Bush both, as much as thumbed their noses at
taxpayers as if to say “so what, what are you going to do about it?” Well,
it's beginning to look like they were right, there is nothing we can do
about it....(full article)

Free as in Freedom, Part
Two“New Linux”by Adam Engel

I was fortunate to
have found the perfect guide for my journey through the politics of
GNU/Linux past and present, Ben Okopnik, Editor-in-Chief of the Linux
Gazette (LG). Yoga instructor and practitioner, Unix instructor and
practitioner, writer, editor and Linux aficionado, Ben was both open to
new ideas, familiar with “old” ones, and willing and able to point me in
the various directions I needed to go to “explain the GNU/Linux model” to
mostly non-technical “left” and “progressive” readers. Okopnik wrote,
“Linux is inextricably political -- and deliberately so, from its very
inception. The OS itself is a tool, as sharp, bright, and beautiful as it
may be; creating a better world, in which human beings cooperate rather
than fight each other ‘to achieve the same exact ends’ which is, from my
perspective, the goal.”....
(full article)

Bush's New Defense Budgetby Robert Higgs

When the Bush administration released its
budget for fiscal year 2006 recently, the news media, as usual, had a
tough time in making sense of the government’s proposals for defense
spending. To some extent, we can’t blame them for their confusion, because
even people who follow this subject closely have trouble sorting out the
government’s various ways of stating the defense budget. Figures that
appear at one place in the budget documents are often difficult or
impossible to reconcile with figures that appear at other places in the
documents. Conspiracy theorists might easily conclude that the government
deliberately tries to make a clear understanding impossible. More
charitably, we might conclude that the government simply does not know how
to keep a clean set of books....
(full
article)

A Fresh Approach to North Korean Nukes Is
Neededby Ivan Eland

North Korea has declared that it has nuclear
weapons, a capability that U.S. intelligence agencies had suspected for
some time. President Bush is known to have a personal distaste for Kim
Jong Il, North Korea’s quirky ruler, and his abysmal human rights record.
Although regime change in the north is not a publicly stated U.S. goal,
the president’s ever idealistic approach is to ratchet up the pain in an
attempt to squeeze the life out of Kim’s tyrannical regime. Although this
approach may seem plausible, it’s counterproductive....(full
article)

Of Teddies and Twitsby Peter Kurth

If
there’s anyone out there still unaware of the Current Most Raging
Controversy in the State of Vermont, let me explain it for you. No, it’s
not about “civil unions” or our former Governor, Howard Dean, MD, having
beat every flack in the pack to become the new
chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. (You go, Howard!) It’s
about a teddy bear. Yes, a teddy bear, called the “Crazy For You” bear,
priced at $69.95 and produced by the chic, up-market Vermont Teddy Bear
Co. in Shelburne -- a sort of Ben and Jerry’s of stuffed animals. The
“Crazy For You” bear, which was designed as a “light-hearted” Valentine’s
Day gift, comes wrapped in a straitjacket and accompanied by commitment
papers -- “commitment,” get it? -- and has so outraged what I believe are
called mental health experts that the president and CEO of VTBC, Elisabeth
Robert, has had to resign from the board of Fletcher Allen Health Care,
Vermont’s largest hospital....(full article)

February 14

Valentine's Day Sweatshopsby Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Before you buy your sweetie those roses for
Valentine's Day, pause for a moment to consider where they come from, and
at what cost -- and what can be done to give a bit more joy not just to
the flowers' recipients, but their producers....(full article)

The American Turkish Council:
US Association Helps Create New World Order
by John Stanton

Operating tax-free
and out of the media or watchdog spotlight is the most powerful
“non-profit” association in the United States, the
American
Turkish Council. Like the thousands of Associations operating inside
the Washington, DC Beltway, the ATC is chartered to provide “legal and
ethical” venues for American-Turkish government and business interests to
meet face-to-face to improve business, security and cultural relations
between the two countries. The ATC, and other Associations, has a dues
structure and committee structure that includes a government relations or
“educational” committee that lobbies the public and US government
representatives on behalf of its members. But that’s where the similarity
ends. While the ATC is an Association in name and in charter, the reality
is that it and other affiliated Associations are the US
government. Theirs is the voice that matters and is the one that is heard
on television and radio networks through the mouths of newsreaders,
senators, congressmen, presidents and military leaders. It is in and
through such Associations that US political, economic and military policy
is made and the American public subsequently “educated” to support
policies that are not, and could not, be debated in public because of
their illegality, audacity, complexity and, arguably, necessity. Instead,
the creation of policy and action -- or even reaction to events -- is
hammered out in corporate boardrooms, foreign governments, research
institutes, and think tanks. It all comes together in Associations like
the ATC. If you want to know what’s really going on or about to come down,
take a visit via the Net to the world of Associations....(full
article)

President Bush, Market Opportunity and
Personal Responsibility
by Seth Sandronsky

Is the market really our best hope for the
future? President Bush's plan for Social Security suggests so. In fact for
him, personally investing in the stock exchange is a virtue. With Bush's
twist, that notion is a holdover from the "new" economy hype of the 1990s
--President Clinton-style -- that saw price bubbles in the dot-com,
high-tech and stock markets....(full
article)

The “Other”
Iraqi Conflict
by Ken Sanders

Flying well below the radar of the
mainstream media and America’s collective consciousness is a conflict
brewing in Iraq. It is not the conflict that so dominates our TV screens
with endless tape loops of death and destruction. It is taking place in
northern Iraq, in the Kurdish autonomous zone known as Kurdistan, and
revolves around the future of Iraq’s Kurdish population and control of the
city of Kirkuk. As it currently stands, this "other" Iraqi conflict seems
capable of shattering any possible peaceful future in Iraq by thrusting
the nation into civil war, possibly dragging the neighboring Turkey, Iran,
and Syria into the fray....(full article)

Washington’s Plan to Foment Civil War in
Iraqby Mike Whitney

It
comes as no surprise that Washington’s party of choice has won the
election in Iraq with a whopping 48% of the vote. The United Iraqi
Alliance (UAI) prevailed in the final vote count ensuring that they will
control at least 140 of the 275 seats in the new Iraqi National Assembly.
This guarantees that the Bush administration will have key figures at the
top levels of government to do their bidding on crucial policy issues.
Their influence will also factor heavily in the shaping of the nation’s
new constitution....
(full article)

Independent or progressive versus corporate or monopoly media, is there
any difference? Without any doubt, no honest observer of both media can
deny that the progressive media is a revolution in an ocean of controlled
information, a solid reference for informed research, and a source of
critical analyses. Despite the present writers’ vote of confidence for the
progressive media, the fact remains that sometimes the distinction between
balanced and objective reporting versus structured, opinionated reporting
is unclear. When this blurred distinction occurs, the designation of
“progressive” becomes irrelevant, as from that point on the intent to
spread disinformation sets in despite protestations to the contrary....(full
article)

From Aqaba to Sharm
el-Sheikh:
Fake Peace Festivals
by Tanya Reinhart

The Sharm el-Sheikh
summit of Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas is hailed in the Western media as
the opening of a new era. This is the climax of a wave of optimism that
has been generated since the death of PLO leader Yasir Arafat. In the last
four years, the Israeli leadership singled Arafat out as the main obstacle
for peace. Adopting the Israeli perspective, the media world believes
that his departure would enable a renewal of the peace process. This, in
the media world, is coupled with the faith that Israel is finally led by a
man of peace. Sharon, who might have had some problems in the past, so the
story goes, has changed his skin, and now he is leading Israel to painful
concessions. . . . But the bitter reality is that nothing has changed. The
new “peace plans” are no more real than the previous ones, and on the
ground, the Palestinians are losing more of their land and are being
pushed into smaller and smaller prison enclaves, surrounded by the new
wall that Sharon's government keeps constructing. On the day of the Sharm
el-Sheikh summit Israeli sources announced that even the illegal outposts
that Israel has committed to evacuate long ago will not be evacuated until
"after implementation of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.”....(full
article)

Where are the American Conscientious
Objectors?
by Baruch Kimmerling

As an Israeli
researcher and political analyst, I follow the American political and
cultural scene with great interest. It is not just a matter of pure
intellectual curiosity, but of direct self-interest. Almost every
development in the American socio-political theater has a direct or
indirect impact on Israel. This influence stems not only from Israel’s
almost complete economic, political and military dependence on the US, but
also from my country’s movement within the American cultural and moral
orbit. The Americans have become a behavioral model and a substitute for
our own collective conscience....(full
article)

Hiroshima, Mon Amourby John Chuckman

A few columnists and commentators who
questioned or opposed the invasion of Iraq, now say, having been touched
by pictures of Iraqis bravely casting ballots, that George Bush was right.
Such is the persuasive power of positive propaganda, which works by
focusing on true details, ignoring their ugly context, and such is the
wisdom imparted by need-to-get-a-column-out thinkers....(full
article)

Is George Bush Listening?by William Fisher

Now that President
Bush has disgorged himself of his Olympian rhetoric about spreading
freedom around the world, perhaps he is now wondering just how he’s going
to achieve this noble goal. His inaugural address, as West Wing
speechwriters like to say, had “altitude”. But they, and hopefully he,
know that real progress toward freedom takes place on the ground, not at
35,000 feet. How is the President going to spread freedom in, say, Egypt?
Over the last twenty-eight years, the U.S. has sent some $50 billion in
military and economic aid to Egypt. America’s generosity was originally
based on one issue: the U.S.S.R. We sent money to keep the Egyptians in
our sphere of influence and out of theirs. And then came a second issue:
Israel. We rewarded Egypt for making peace with Israel. Finally, came the
“war or terror,” and we paid Egypt to suppress its own Islamic extremists
and to help us to do the same with ours....(full
article)

Condi’s Euro-Tour
by Mike Whitney

In case you missed
it, Condi's Euro-tour was a complete flop. Far from being the “triumph”
celebrated by FOX News, the trip was just another opportunity to parrot
the belligerent policies of the Bush Administration to our former allies.
Unlike her predecessor, Rice never deviates from the White House script
she has painstakingly memorized. Powell, however lacking in candor, was
known to diverge from the hard-right fanaticism of his superiors from time
to time. That will never be said of Condi, who flatly refuses to engage in
any impromptu conversation that might take her off message. The press
coverage was nearly as abysmal as her lackluster diplomatic performance.
Of the 1,200 or more articles entered on Google, at least half of them use
the term “fence mending” to describe her trip. It's clear that the media
had decided on a strategy for their coverage long before Rice had left
Washington. The stories invariably shower praise on the Ice Princess for
her magnanimous gesture of reconciliation. In fact, Rice has simply
mastered the art of giving directives through a frigid grin. There was no
sign of compromise whatsoever....(full
article)

Faith, Fabrications, and Fantasy (Part 1)
Four years in the life of Bush's
faith-based initiative
by Bill Berkowitz

In the coming year,
while secular organizations providing much-needed social services to the
poor will likely need the Jaws of Life to pry money from the Bush
Administration, faith-based organizations will be taking in money hand
over fist. In 2003 alone, the administration handed out $1.17 billion in
grants to religious organizations, and if the president has his way,
individual states will soon be handing over hundreds of millions of
dollars to faith-based organizations....(full article)

Faith, Fabrications, and Fantasy (Part 2)
by Bill Berkowitz

After more than $1 billion in handouts,
Bush's results-impaired faith-based initiative is coming to a state near
you....(full article)

It Just Takes One McVeigh
to Ruin Your DayAn Interview with Randy Blazakby Joshua Frank

Randy Blazak is an associate professor of sociology at Portland State
University in Portland, Oregon. He is the director of the Hate Crime
Research Network (www.hatecrime.net),
which connects academic work on bias criminality. He is also the
co-founder of Oregon Spotlight, which monitors hate groups in the state of
Oregon and he is the chair of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crimes. His
latest book is entitled Renegade Kids, Suburban Outlaws: From Youth
Culture to Delinquency (Wadsworth, 2001)....
(full
interview)

The Brussels Lobby Youthby Matt Reichel

In the year 2005, everybody wants to be a
lobbyist. Of course, when these young, hip corporate pawns admit to you
that they lobby for their company in Brussels (home of the European
Union), they usually do it under their breath. It could be my rather
unorthodox, punkish attire that sends signals to their brains saying maybe
I don’t like the lobby game, but, regardless, it’s always the same
“…and…and I lobby in
Brussels.” And I respond: “Ah so that’s
what “Public Relations Assistant” means!” One of the great things about
existing snugly on the Left is I’m pretty sure that I’m never going to own
one of these dastardly job titles intended to cover the disgusting work
that I, in fact, am in charge of doing for my mercenary organization. But
for an alarmingly increasing number of kids my age in
Europe,
Brussels is where the business is at.
Behind the hip façade of revelers at many popular Parisian discotheques
lies the unfortunate reality of a cadre of neoliberalism’s ground
troops....(full article)

Having declared the elections in Iraq a resounding success and that
freedom is on the march, it now appears that the Administration's focus is
increasingly honing in on Iran. The hairs on America's collective neck
should be standing on end. Iran, a member of Bush's infamous axis of evil,
is known to have improperly concealed its nuclear activities from the
International Atomic Energy Agency for 18 years. According to Iran, it is
intent on developing a peaceful nuclear energy program and has no designs
on nuclear weapons. To date, the IAEA has not found any conclusive
evidence to contradict Iran's claims....(full
article)

Bush’s Budget is
at Odds With His Rhetoricby Gene C. Gerard

President
Bush submitted a $2.57 trillion budget to Congress that eliminates or
drastically cuts 150 governmental programs. The budget is an attempt to meet
his goal of slashing the deficit in half by 2009, without giving up tax cuts
for the wealthy that were implemented during his first term. When asked
about the cuts, Bush said, “Spending discipline requires difficult choices.”
But much in Bush’s budget runs contrary to his administration’s rhetoric. Although
Bush has now called for fiscal discipline, during his first term the
nation’s deficit rose to record levels. And his administration is currently
spending an estimated $5 billion per month on the war in Iraq. And although
the president acknowledged that difficult choices are needed to reduce the
deficit, his budget includes no funds for military action in Iraq in 2006.
The administration said they could not predict how much money would be
needed, so rather than approximating the cost in the budget, they will ask
Congress for additional funding next year. However, Bush will ask Congress
for an additional $81 billion later this month for Iraq. Since the
administration believes this amount is needed for 2005, shouldn’t “spending
discipline” require it to estimate next year’s military costs for Iraq in
the budget? (full article)

Results from last Sunday's election at the
Cathedral of Hope in Dallas (and its branch in Oklahoma City) have yet to
be officially announced, but it's safe to predict that Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson
will win the congregation's endorsement as senior pastor to the largest
gay, lesbian, and transgender congregation in the world. When linked to
the November general election of Lupe Valdez as Dallas County Sheriff, the
election of Dr. Hudson this week may not signal a clear trend toward
lesbian leadership in North Texas, but it is another pathmarker in hard
country, and therefore a sign worth noting. . . .Stoner,
with 30 years of peace activism behind him, is working on a project named
Every Church a Peace Church (ECAPC), and this is his first official try at
converting the religious economy of Texas into a peace faith....(full
article)

Priorities of Power:
The Real Meaning of Elections in
Iraqby Media Lens

In
truth it is quite wrong to describe the corporate media as “mainstream”.
We wouldn’t describe Flat Earthism as mainstream geology, nor would we
describe Mein Kampf as mainstream political philosophy. There isn’t
a cultural or philosophical tradition on the planet that takes seriously
the idea that truth telling can be reconciled with greed. The idea that it
can be reconciled with the unlimited greed of corporate profit maximizing
is too ridiculous even to discuss. Or should be.Of course might makes
right. Of course corporate journalists bask in the limelight, with
salaries and status to match. But if the influence of profit and power
were somehow magically neutralized, their performance would be revealed as
a highly marginal, extremist, and in fact weird offshoot of mainstream
human culture. If not “weird”, which adjective could we possibly use to
describe the following “free press” nuggets? ....
(full
article)

Forget the Lies: Who is “Jeff
Gannon”?by Katherine Brengle

When I
first started writing about the elusive “Jeff Gannon” last week, I had no
idea how serious the situation was. Since writing the original article, “Why
is Jeff Gannon Lying,” I have been filtering through an enormous body
of research done by the bloggers of
Daily Kos and the staff of
Media Matters for America, and all of us following this story have
settled on some basic, but very important, questions that must be answered
about this guy. Since this erupted in the blogosphere and in the
alternative press (and also the mainstream media to some extent), Gannon
has closed up shop (www.jeffgannon.com)
and apparently resigned or has been fired from Talon News. However, these
questions still need answers, as they may cut to the heart of the Bush
Administration propaganda scandal....(full
article)

Social Security “Reform”: A Smokescreen
for Benefit Cuts
by Lee Sustar

George W. Bush’s
Social Security privatization plan rests on three big lies. The first is
that the current system is in crisis and doomed to fail. The second is
that gains in private retirement accounts will exceed traditional benefits
from the program. And the last is that such accounts will become a
cornerstone of an “ownership society” in which working people will
steadily build wealth. Each of these assertions can be easily exposed as
nonsense -- and a smokescreen for drastic cuts in benefits and the
dismantling of the entire system. But because the Democratic Party accepts
much of the White House’s political framework, Bush has been handed an
excellent opportunity to destroy the most successful social program in
U.S. history....(full article)

1,400
Americans, who clearly should have never been taken from the joys of
everyday pleasures with family and friends at home, came back from Iraq in
aluminum caskets because of the Bush administration’s audacious WMD lie. They’re
joined by many more young men and women who’ve lost limbs, eyesight, hearing
and sanity for the same shameful deception.
Meanwhile, the journal Lancet reports that
100,000 Iraqi noncombatants --
mainly women and children -- have perished since Bush’s totally unprovoked,
unjustified aggression began.
Considering Iraq’s population, that’s the equivalent of a 9/11 casualty
count every ten or eleven days, which should harrowingly haunt all
conscientious, decent souls....(full
article)

What They Really Mean...
by Norman Solomon

Since
the 1950s, many young Americans have first encountered critiques of mass
media in the pages of Mad. With its intricate cartoons and
satirical sendups, the monthly magazine gained a reputation for skewering
politicians, advertisers, TV shows and a variety of print outlets. One of
Mad’s recurrent shticks has involved making fun of gaps between
words and meaning -- an especially welcome form of humor because
mainstream news so often amplifies the words of public figures with
scarcely a hint of irony, much less deprecation. Notwithstanding the zany
image of Alfred E. Neuman, the magazine’s grinning icon of absurdity has
overseen plenty of sobering antidotes to the phony self-importance of
major media. One-third of the way through February, looking at a few of
the day’s top news stories, I tried to imagine the properly Mad way to
annotate them. Here’s what I came up with:....(full
article)

Folksy Tom Friedman and New Age
Imperialismby Mike Whitney

Putting through the baloney in a Tom Friedman article is like picking a
nickel out of a dog's breakfast -- damn near impossible. His knack at
jiggering the truth to co-opt his readership puts him light-years beyond
his piers. Without a fair grasp of the facts before reading one of his
columns, you’ll never know you’re being drawn into a parallel universe of
calculated distortions. His latest ruminations focus on the shabby,
murderous occupation of Iraq. Friedman endorsed the war from the get-go
with proviso that it should be “done right.” Yup, according to Friedman
the laser-guided carnage, leveling of Falluja and the subsequent torture
of suspects was “okie-dokey” as long as it was “done right.” The great
error of the war, according to Tom, was that we didn't provide enough
troops to stabilize the country. That's it. Not a word about the torture,
death and destruction just practical, “nuts-and-bolts” stuff about how to
win the war from our Pulitzer Prize winning prognosticator....(full
article)

Iraq’s Election Will Not Guarantee
Democracyby Gene C. Gerard

The
Bush administration was understandably happy with the Iraqi election.
Despite the death of approximately 50 people, 57 percent of the population
voted. President Bush declared that “The people of Iraq have spoken to the
world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom.” However, a quick
glance at recent history easily dispels the myth that elections lead to
democracy and freedom....(full article)

February 9

Ward Churchill's Real Sinsby Michael Smith

In all the hysteria
surrounding his essay comparing 911 victims with Adolf Eichmann no one has
focused on Churchill’s own view that certain perspectives are too
reprehensible to see print....(full article)

My sources tell me that U.S. intelligence
has just uncovered a chilling pre-9/11 edict from Osama bin Laden on the
topic of striking the infidels where it hurts: “What is necessary is cruel
and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place, and
casualties...we must strike mercilessly, women and children included.
Otherwise, the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action, there is
no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent.” Actually, not only do
I not have any “sources”, but that quote does not come courtesy of the
reigning bogeyman...it’s a January 1, 1948 diary entry by one of Israel's
founding fathers, David Ben-Gurion (talking about the Palestinians, of
course).....(full article)

What First Amendment?by William Fisher

While authoritarian states in much of the
world are routinely jailing journalists and others for expressing their
views, a substantial proportion of U.S. high school students believes the
government should censor the American press and that the free speech
protections of the Bill of Rights First Amendment go “too far.”....(full article)

Still Playing Cute with
the Law
by Ken Sanders

As the graphic images of torture,
degradation, and abuse at Abu Ghraib slowly fade from America's collective
consciousness and as scapegoats are prosecuted while those who created
legal loopholes justifying torture are promoted to the President's
Cabinet, it is worth noting that very little has actually changed. The
U.S. and its proxies still engage in torture and abuse as part of the
global war on terror. At the same time, the White House, Congress, and
U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies continue, in the words of
Senator Lindsey Graham, “playing cute with the law.”....
(full
article)

The Gates to Hellby Dan Raphael

Speaking
in code is one of the ways evil pays homage to virtue. Not willing to
quite come right out and express his enthusiasm for the inhuman working
conditions and corresponding suffering that the Chinese government’s labor
policies entail, Bill Gates burbles about how working people in China do
“not quite” have the legal or medical “overhead” that exists in the United
States. “Overhead,” as we know, is the cost of doing business that any
enterprise must factor into its operating plans and daily routine. What
this means in legal and medical terms—the ones just cited by Mr. Gates—is
that working people in the United States have legal protections limiting
the hours and conditions in which they can be worked, dangers to which
they are exposed, and provision of avenues for appeal when these
protections are violated. Medical “overhead” means that a (diminishing)
portion of the workforce in the United States is provided varying kinds
and degree of medical coverage by their employers, insurance intended to
protect them in the case of catastrophic injury or disease, and
corresponding encouragement to seek regular, preventive examination. Mr.
Gates is enthusiastic that these impediments to business do not fetter the
flow of profits in the Chinese mainland....(full
article)

The Neoliberal EU Treaty: French Labor
Says Noby Matt Reichel

The current project of the neoliberal
economic machine is approval of the European constitution: with the aim of
solidifying the political ties that have made it easier for transnational
corporations to control European economic affairs. Thus far, champions of
the constitution have sloughed off the opposition as the extreme right and
extreme left up to their old tricks: using nationalism and class
antagonism to destroy the journey of liberal peace-making. However, this
idea was dealt a blow on February 3 when France’s largest trade union, the
Confédération Général du Travail (CGT), urged its membership to oppose the
constitution. Despite the support thrown at the project by the Socialist
Party (PS) and most mainstream leaders of the Left in France, there is
growing fear that the rank-and-file will not be going along. To no one’s
surprise, the major parties are completely in bed with the spread of
neoliberal political economy, while real people and their communities have
grave fears. Indeed, what’s brewing in Brussels ought to be opposed by
anyone on the Left. The consolidation of a trans-European neoliberal
economic model will have untold consequences for workers, independent
shopkeepers, retirees, and families throughout the continent. The growing
controversy over the treaty is just another sign of the increasing
resentment through the world of the Washington consensus....(full
article)

While
all other Western nations have abolished the “outdated, immoral and
illegal” practice of Capital Punishment, the U.S continues executing
people, said Mike Farrell, former MASH TV star and President of Death
Penalty Focus, in Davis recently. “If killing is wrong, then it is at
least as wrong for the state to kill in cold blood,” he said. “It’s a
cold, dehumanizing ritual that teaches us that taking life is
permissible.” The U.S. Supreme Court allowed states with newly drafted
laws to resume executions in 1976. Thirty-eight states now have death
penalties. A total of 877 people have been executed since 1977, when
executions resumed. The nation's largest death row is in California, with
625 condemned inmates. The state has executed 10 people since 1976....(full
article)

Oh Lord, Ain't it Hard!by Sheila Samples

The
curious thing about George Bush's State of the Union speech is that
anybody who's paid attention to Bush over the last four years -- or 40
years -- would find it, or him for that matter, even remotely curious.
Those who expected Bush to be different in his
Second Coming, who thought they would at long last hear specifics on the
true state of the union rather than the usual soaring generalities, have
to be a bit disappointed. Or not. After all, most Americans seem hesitant
to question Bush's grand scheme to fight terror by creating even more
terror with his “doctrine” of assassination and collateral damage. Only a
few have dared to approach him with even a tentative suggestion that
perhaps the public deserves an explanation for the heinous torture, abuse
and even murder of those unfortunate enough to be scooped up and detained
in prisons such as Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. And, sadly, nobody seems
to notice the growing daily
death toll of American citizens in Iraq....(full
article)

Taking on the American Taliban
by Bernard Weiner

One of the books I've read, Khaled
Hosseini's touching, best-selling novel The Kite Runner, deals in
part with the Taliban period in Afghanistan. Yesterday, on a cable
channel, I also saw the movie "Osama," which likewise focuses on that
period. Taliban rule in Afghanistan was brutal, murderous religion run
amok, a return to the strict fundamentalism of 7th-century Islam. Though
such behavior turned my stomach, I could detach a bit from it because it
was Over There. Harder to detach here in the USA. In a much more civilized
fashion, that kind of Know-Nothingism is infecting our culture as well.
And threatening to take down that which historically had made America
great -- our driving curiosity, our tolerance for and celebration of
diversity, our institutions enshrining freedom for all our citizens....(full
article)

February 7-8

Ward Churchill And The Imminent
Destruction
of American Higher Educationby Carolyn Baker

. . . .Little
did I realize, however, that on that same day, another college professor
in another state who had been teaching another subject was not
being told to “just talk” but rather to shut up and leave his teaching
position. That professor is Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado
whose comments have been taken out of context and grossly distorted and
who has now become a poster boy for “terrorist professors” by the neo-con,
neo-fascist thought police of the cult which journalist Seymour Hersh
recently declared has taken over America. However, I did not need the Ward
Churchill affair or Seymour Hersh’s assessment to deduce that higher
education in the United States is dying a slow and tragic death. I relive
that death every day in my classes as I witness students who are unable to
define the word democracy, who tell me that “we did what we had to
do in Iraq,” and who have little idea that when they leave college, they
will discover that the job they now believe will help them repay the
$30,000 student loan that allows them to attend college, will have been
outsourced to a third-world country. As my classes have more students
enrolled in them every semester as a result of hordes of unemployed people
attending or returning to college, I wonder how long it will take for
unprecedented enrollment numbers to dry up as graduates realize that no
professional jobs exist and as the middle class of America is destroyed.
Young people will increasingly discover that there is little purpose in
going to college. After all, who needs a degree to work at Wal-Mart or
Target? (full article)

I am sure you’ve heard of Ward Churchill’s
latest tribulations -- so I’ll save you the repetition. However, I bet
what you didn’t know was that liberals were running hand in hand with
conservatives in hopes of clothes lining the radical professor. In a recent
CommonDreams.org column titled “Ward
Churchill's Banality of Evil,” Anthony Lappé argues that Churchill’s
critique of 9/11, along with his calling the workers in the World Trade
Center “little Eichmanns,” was utterly reprehensible...(full article)

The Distortions of Acumen Continued:
More Liberal Trashing of Ward Churchillby Joshua Frank

The continued trashing of radical professor
Ward Churchill from the left end of the political spectrum is
ever-increasing. Take Marc Cooper,
contributing editor to The Nation magazine, and columnist for the
LA Weekly, who on his personal blog responded to Churchill’s essay
“Some
Push Back”: “Move
over, Mumia. The Left has a new cause celebre that’s a guaranteed
loser: Ward Churchill … I saw the essay at the time and was nauseated by
it. I have been tempted over the years to write something about it, but
have always decided not to. Only because I consider Churchill to be an
irrelevant and clearly deranged loner on the edge of the looniest left.
Now I regret not having denounced him. Too bad others on the left also
didn’t quickly hurry to divorce themselves from this guy. Churchill, as
you know, surfaced in the news last month when he was invited to speak at
an upstate New York university and some conservatives raised a ruckus – as
they damn well should. If this guy can hang on to his tenure at CU fine.
But damned if student funds from somewhere else should be used to host him
as some sort of guest speaker”....(full article)

Spy Cams on Campusby Bill Berkowitz

Evan Maloney is offering a measure of fame
and a few decent prizes to students documenting political transgressions
of their liberal professors....
(full
article)

Bush Puppets Push for New Law to Protect
Drug Companiesby Evelyn J. Pringle

Autism rates across the country have grown
over 1000% since 1990, according to the National Autism Association.
Autism was first diagnosed as a disorder in the 1950s. The symptoms
described then are essentially the same as those used to diagnose autism
today. They may include, limited speech, impaired social interaction, and
repetitive behaviors such as arm flapping. In the broader autistic
spectrum of less severe cases, children may speak but have unusual
behaviors and learning disabilities, or they may have high IQs but great
difficulty with social interaction. What
used to be a very rare condition has now become a nationwide epidemic. The
difference in the new cases of autism is that the symptoms did not appear
at birth. They appeared shortly after a child received vaccinations in the
second year of life. According to the 2004 spring issue of Mother Jones
magazine, “In 2002, an estimated 1 in 250 American children was
diagnosed with autism, up from 1 in 500 in 2000, and 1 in 5,000 in the
1980s.” Research has now
determined that the cause of the escalation is Thimerosal, a mercury-based
product that until recently was added to childhood vaccines as a
preservative in multi-dose bottles to increase profits for the drug
companies that manufacture vaccines....(full
article)

Vaccines are the
only drugs that American children are mandated to receive. Although it may
be true that state governments mandate vaccines, the decision to mandate a
vaccine is based on the recommendations of Federal advisory committees.
In the interest of public safety, Congress has a duty to ensure that
advisory committee members involved in vaccine policy making are not
improperly influenced by conflicts of interest. In recent years, public
trust in the Federal policymaking related to vaccines causing Autism has
been broken by the practice of ignoring obvious conflicts of interest. At
this point, immediate action by Congress is necessary to restore public
confidence in the safety of childhood vaccinations....(full article)

The Boogeyman and Social Securityby Ken Sanders

President Bush devoted a large portion of his State of the Union address
to describing the gloomy future of Social Security. Currently, he is
gallivanting around the country in something reminiscent of a medicine
show, doing his best to scare people into thinking Social Security is in
“crisis” and will be “bankrupt” by the time younger workers begin to
retire. He preaches before a background of charts and graphs, dripping red
ink, showing Social Security in a kamikaze-like nosedive. He even goes so
far as to admonish the young to not look at the charts, fearing the images
are too grisly for such tender youth. Then, after scaring everyone out of
their wits, Bush declares that the only way to “save” Social Security and
prevent future retirees from living on the streets in abject poverty is
through personal savings accounts. Is the future of Social Security really
so dire? Economists far more knowledgeable than I don't seem to think so.
In fact, according to the folks at
Dollars and Sense magazine and the
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Social Security, while far
from perfect, is in much better condition than Bush would have us believe.
As with the Boogeyman lurking under the bed, turn on the lights and things
aren't so scary....(full article)

Why is Jeff Gannon Lying?by Katherine Brengle

The
Boston Globe and Editor & Publisher have been tracking
the Jeff Gannon story for a while. Unfortunately, in light of the State
of the Union, the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales, and the ongoing battle
for Social Security, this story has been set on the backburner of the
political commentary stovetop. The controversy over Gannon is heating up
due to the softball questions he consistently asks during White House
press briefings and the fact that he has repeatedly been denied a
White House “hard pass” press credential and has instead been granted
repeated daily press passes directly from the White House Press Office.
There are several reasons he has been denied a permanent pass, including
the fact that the news site he writes for,
TalonNews.com,
could not provide evidence that they were an independent news
organization, not tied to any political organization. In addition to
that, The Standing Committee of Correspondents (the group of congressional
reporters who oversee press credential distribution on Capitol Hill) also
requires that in order to get a permanent pass, TalonNews.com would have
to prove it carries paid advertising and paid circulation, as regular
newspapers do. They could not do so....(full
article)

Government Without Consent
by Mike Whitney

Moral legitimacy is
the cornerstone of democratic government. Without it the ruling body
cannot claim the consent of the people. This simple fact is of no concern
to the Bush administration, but it should be to those of us who are
alarmed by steady decline of our basic institutions. The administration
operates entirely according to the expedients of deception and brute
force, the antithesis of our government’s original design. It garners its
dwindling support through lies, public relations antics and jingoism. Even
so, the public has seen through the fog of propaganda and is rejecting the
administration’s most cherished project: the occupation of Iraq. (Latest
polls show that 6 of 10 Americans no longer believe the war was
worthwhile) This fact attests to the innate ability of the majority to see
through the fabrications of the state and recognize the basic injustice of
the current policy; no mean task given the astonishing efforts of the
corporate media to distort the news from Iraq....(full
article)

February 3-4

The Senate Confirms Our Country's Errant
Pathby Carl Doerner

The contentious confirmations of Condoleezza
Rice as Secretary of State and Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General are
now in place, but they rest uneasily with respect to both contemplation
and our history. More senators voted against Rice than any State nominee
since 1825, and Gonzales was acceptable to only six Democrats and the
compliant Senate majority. During recent weeks I was either present as a
photojournalist in the hearing room in Washington or closely following the
daily C-SPAN coverage of both Senate hearings and debate. In addition, I
have keenly observed moves the Bush administration has made in the past
four years that undermine the Constitution, that manipulate the public on
both foreign and domestic issues through the use of fear, and the lies to
the American people and to other nations. All of these are designed to
serve its elite and corporate sponsors, consolidate undemocratic power,
and advance an ideological program of foreign and domestic ambitions
written before it illegitimately grasped power in 2001 and instituted
after allowing the major terrorist attack on this country to occur....(full
article)

The Desperate State of the Union
by Mike Whitney

No doubt about it, the State of the Union
was Bush’s lamest performance to date. He may have lunged to the dais like
a prizefighter, soaking in the adulation of the Republican faithful, but
when the bell rang he made a few wheezing sounds before nose-diving to the
canvas. Off his game, was he? The soliloquy was familiar enough: Bush
promising to take the broad-ax to popular domestic programs so that more
revenue could be loosened up for high-tech weaponry and exorbitant tax
cuts. But the delivery was as flat as Texas road kill. It had none of the
gusto of his earlier speeches, just the monotone whimpering of a political
understudy reciting his lines to the teleprompter. Bleak, very bleak....(full
article)

Lessons Not Learned and the War on Free
Speechby Ward Churchill

In the last few days there
has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my
analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and
threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned
into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be
reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been....(full
article)

Curiosity may occasionally kill a cat. But
lack of curiosity is apt to terminate journalism with extreme prejudice.
“We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq, because that
would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out,”
President Bush said in his State of the Union address. “We are in Iraq to
achieve a result: A country that is democratic, representative of all its
people, at peace with its neighbors and able to defend itself.” President
Johnson said the same thing about the escalating war in Vietnam. His
rhetoric was typical on Jan. 12, 1966: “We fight for the principle of
self-determination -- that the people of South Vietnam should be able to
choose their own course, choose it in free elections without violence,
without terror, and without fear.” Anyone who keeps an eye on mainstream
news is up to speed on the latest presidential spin. But the reporters who
tell us what the president wants us to hear should go beyond stenography
to note historic echoes and point out basic contradictions....(full
article)

“We can all recognize that abortion in many
ways represents a sad, even tragic, choice to many, many women.” It sounds
like something straight out of the mouth of George W. Bush -- or some
other anti-choice Republican looking to repeal abortion rights. But this
was the comment of Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as she spoke
last month to a 1,000-strong crowd of abortion rights supporters on the
32nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing
abortion. Taking a page straight from the Bush administration’s “moral
values” playbook, Clinton celebrated faith and organized religion as the
“primary” reasons why teenagers would abstain from sexual relations -- and
insisted that there “is an opportunity for people of good faith to find
common ground in this debate.” Unfortunately, the “common ground” Clinton
is talking about is squarely on the turf of the right wing. Clinton’s
comments are just one example of the Democratic Party leadership’s attempt
to embrace a more conservative stance on abortion rights after their
November election losses....(full article)

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is
currently gathering original co-sponsors for her proposed bill to abolish
the Electoral College system for the U.S. Presidential Election, and to
replace it with a direct vote for the Presidency, according to Feinstein
press secretary, Adam Vogt. The Electoral College has been described by
critics as confusing, complicated, alienating, diversionary, unnecessary,
undemocratic, and moreover, as hypocritical to the fundamental principles
of American governance, which has otherwise been a global leader in
democracy....(full article)

Australia: The Sickening of Democracyby John Pilger

National myths are usually partly true. In
Australia, the myth of an egalitarian society, or "fair go", has an
extraordinary history. Long before most of the world, Australia had a
minimum wage, a 35-hour working week, child benefits and the vote for
women. The secret ballot was invented in Australia. By the 1960s,
Australians could boast the most equitable spread of personal income in
the world. Today, these are forgotten, subversive truths. As schools are
ordered to fly the flag (its British Union Jack still mocking from on
high), the maudlin story of Australian soldiers dying pointlessly for an
imperial master at Gallipoli is elevated, along with barely veiled
colonialism and racism. Self-promoted as a bastion of human rights,
Australia has become a sideshow of their denial and degradation. Many
Australians are aware of this, not least those who filled a small Sydney
theatre on 26 January, "Australia Day", which celebrates the dispossession
of the Aboriginal people by the British in 1770. The Australian playwright
Stephen Sewell's remarkable play Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi
Germany and Contemporary America was showing at the Stables Theatre.
Inspired in part by Franz Kafka's The Trial, it strips away the
democratic facade of Bush's America -- "if you want to see America, look
into the eyes of its prisoners", says one of the principal characters.
Rapacious power dressed as democracy, and the fear and silence of its
privileged -- notably academics -- are Sewell's theme and one that is
rarely discussed in public in Australia....(full
article)

The Knave of Diamondsby Dan Raphael

As
of this writing, it appears that Dr. Howard Dean will be the next Chair of
the Democratic National Committee [DNC]. He has been campaigning amongst
Democratic Party powerbrokers for the post, and has presented himself as the
best available person to begin re-cementing the Second Party’s fortunes
after the latest electoral disaster. This turn of events is significant in two
respects. Dealing Dean to a post that is largely administrative and heavily
involved in fundraising neatly sidetracks a sometimes progressive-sounding
prospective candidate to a post where he is politically neutered. Because
of the Chairman’s duties, the DNC does not serve well as a bully pulpit for
anyone trying to influence policy. Like his predecessor, Dr. Dean will
be inextricably bound up with the minimalist politics lately packaged as
“Anyone But Bush”—with the minimalist results that have led to the
Democrats' current state of demoralization. Thus, any pretensions the
doctor has had to be a popular and populist Democratic voice of “new”
concerns for peace and justice will be drawn into the black hole of cash
concerns and crushed in the gravity well of corporate corruption. Dean
will be finished as any kind of alternative force for more than purely
cosmetic changes in his party....(full
article)

So
it looks like Howard Dean is going to become the next leader of the
Democratic National Committee (DNC). The official vote will not come until
February 12, but Dean is stacking up endorsement after endorsement, as his
top competitor former Rep. Martin Frost dropped out of the race on Tuesday. Dean is also likely to
bump off newcomer Donnie Fowler, who only recently entered his bid for the
DNC post. Fowler, whose father Don led the DNC in the mid-1990s, served as
John Kerry’s campaign strategist in Michigan in 2004. Many Democrats seem to
think Dean’s future ascendance to the throne of the DNC will breathe new
life into their dead party. They are right about one thing -- the party is
out cold -- even so, Dean is not likely to resurrect its corpse....(full
article)

Leslie H. Gelb is president emeritus of the
Council on Foreign Relations. As a former editor and columnist for The
New York Times, however, he transforms into the Amazing Gelbo and gets
to spout his ill-informed paeans to denial on that paper’s op-ed page.
February 2, 2005 saw the publication of a little something called “The
Lessons of 1787,” in which Gelbo waxed poetic about the “truly
heartwarming effects of Sunday’s (Iraqi) elections.” He reminded us:
“Elections decide who is to govern” but warned that only a Constitution
can “define the reach and limits of electoral power, and the viability and
legitimacy of a government.” The new Iraqi National Assembly, says Gelbo,
“should forgo drafting the constitution and establish a special
constitutional committee” that engages “Iraq’s James Madisons and Ben
Franklins” (I’m not making this up). That where the whole 1787 thing comes
into play. Iraq needs to follow in America’s footsteps (then again,
doesn’t everyone?) It’s as if Gelbo was asking those poor Iraqis: “Who’s
your daddy?” because, as we all know, you ain’t nothing without Founding
Fathers(tm)....(full article)

February 1-2

The Violence
Of Hypocrisyby T. Patrick Donovan

It seems to me that the political
philosopher Hannah Arendt nailed it when she wrote: “Moreover, if we
inquire historically into the causes likely to transform engagés into
enragés, it is not injustice that ranks first, but hypocrisy.” Yes,
hypocrisy as the principal cause of violence, transforming the “engaged”
into the “enraged.” Arendt goes on to explain that, “Only where
there is reason to suspect that conditions could be changed and are not
does rage arise.” Are we not surrounded and bombarded by hypocrisy every
single minute in America? Are we not the most violent -- ragefully violent
-- society on the face of the planet? Do we not wonder why the richest,
most powerful nation on earth does nothing to change conditions of
poverty, starvation, and environmental despoliation? (full
article)

The Never Again Mantra: The Independent’s
Case for Genocide in Iraq
by Kim Petersen

“Never again” must be one of the most
hypocritical phrases ever mouthed. In October 2001,
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to the
Labour Party Conference: “And I tell you if Rwanda happened again
today as it did in 1993, when a million people were slaughtered in cold
blood, we would have a moral duty to act there also.” It was Blair’s
version of the “Never again” mantra. His sincerity was damned by what the
International Committee of the Red Cross called “the most deadly war ever
documented in Africa. Indeed, the highest war death toll documented
anywhere in the world during the last half century,” and ongoing since
1998 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yet, it was allowed to slide
under the UK media radar, as it was in the US and elsewhere....(full
article)

The Great
Distractionby Rachel Olivieri

Who will win the Super
Bowl? That is as easy as saying, “Culture Industry,” the hands down winner
for perhaps the last 38 Super Bowls. An anticipated 145 million
predominately male US viewers are expected to tune in [tune-out]. Who says
Big Brother is watching? Quite unnecessary -- far too many are more than
willing to watch him, on their dime. Perhaps some Americans need a break
from the war, pending economic doom, social security privatization, world
poverty, global warming, prayer in schools and gay marriage. Well, I
suppose it is just as well that they excuse themselves from the necessity
of living their own lives. Why bother when we can sit down, pop a beer and
watch someone else’s reality. Ooops, just a Matrix thought....(full
article)

Given the heart-warming success of the
president’s education reform, it is time to expand the application of its
principles to government itself....
(full
article)

The Real State of the Unionby Marty Jezer

George W. Bush presents his State of the
Union address tonight. He’s sure to talk about spreading “freedom” and
“democracy” the world over, the “ownership society,” and the greatness of
our country. Here are some subjects he won’t talk about....(full
article)

Embracing Empireby Ryan Winger

Ryan Winger reviews neoconservative author
Niall Ferguson's book Colossus, which argues in Machiavellian
fashion that empire -- particularly American empire -- is not to be
denied, but instead desired....(full
article)

There Is No Longer Any
Room For Doubt
(An Open Letter To Americans)by Rev. José M. Tirado

Dear
fellow Americans,
Last week, George Bush took the Presidential oath of office for the second
time to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States." As usual, even the most hardened news reporters displayed their
misty-eyed awe at the occasion as if it marked the high point of
humanity's democratic aspirations. It didn't. Because left unsaid was a
growing but palpable unease within parts of the United States and in many
places around the world. his unease stems in part, from the manipulation
of religiosity to further ends so anti-democratic and so against the grain
of American ideals that our very system of government is now threatened.
The growing, so-called Christianization of our political and civic life
poses a threat to all of us, not just to non-Christians like myself. This
trend is now joining forces with equally frightening trends in corporate
America that are coalescing, with awful consequences for all
concerned....(full article)

The Prince of Wonderlandby William Fisher

Good news! The Prince of Darkness has
morphed into The Prince of Peace. Having fixed Iraq, Richard Perle is now
ready to advise us on Iran. The former Assistant Defense Secretary in the
Reagan Administration, and Neocon darling, appeared on a recent Charlie
Rose show on PBS, following his nemesis, Seymour Hersh of The New
Yorker magazine. When Perle appeared, Rose quoted Hersh: “The Neocons
believe that if we take out Iranian nuke sites with precision airstrikes,
the people will rise up and overthrow the mullahs.”....(full
article)

Lessons from the Heckling of Lula
by Matt Reichel

The defining element of
the 2005 World Social Forum is that the superstar of previous years was
heckled off of the stage: Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva
(Lula) being perceived as a sell-out by the movement that helped propel
him into power. Once an inspiring labor organizer who helped formulate a
grassroots political party within a political system replete with
corruption and instability, Lula is now perceived as just another leader
in the pocket of the Washington consensus. Popular left discourse now
paints him as a traitor, whose policymaking has been more in line with
those discussed in Davos, and not Porto Alegre. Others have argued that
Brazilian military involvement in Haiti, under the auspices of the United
Nations (UN), has served to further reveal how changed Lula has become
since entering power. The easy conclusion to make is that this is a case
in point: power corrupts. Then it follows that our goal as a movement
seeking “another world” is to embrace anarchy or, minimally, radical
de-centralization of power. While not opposed to either of these concepts,
I think that it’s extremely important to take away another very important
lesson from Lula’s fall from grace. Aside from the fact that a movement
advocating power decentralization and social justice should never have had
a superstar in the first place, I find the Lula dilemma to be grounded in
the core terminology: “Another World is Possible.” As Social movement
activists, we should be embracing the sheer plurality of worlds that would
exist if we could effectively work to remove the political and economic
superstructure that now dominates world affairs. Neoliberalism is all
about one world; we should, in contrast, be all about the very many
histories and lives that exist in making up this singular planet....(full
article)

Drink It Upby Peter Kurth

The Iraq elections, the potential health
benefit of bon-bons and no exercise, and fast sperm collide in Peter
Kurth's latest pastiche....(full article)

-- The Iraq Election --

Iraq’s Election Fiascoby Mike Whitney

If the Bush
administration had any confidence in their Iraq policy they would have
plopped Saddam’s name on the ballot. That way we’d know whether Iraqis
would rather continue on the ruinous path of occupation or return to the
“good old days” of the former tyrant. Instead, we’re left with a spaghetti
bowl of candidates whose names tell us nothing about the success or
failure of the American strategy. Despite Junior Bush’s assertion of
“resounding success,” the elections have only further obscured the real
source of the current dilemma: occupation....(full
article)

(Dispatches from Iraq)What They’re Not Telling You
About the “Election”by Dahr Jamail

The day of blood and elections has passed,
and the blaring trumpets of corporate media hailing it as a successful
show of “democracy” have subsided to a dull roar. After a day which left
50 people dead in Iraq, both civilians and soldiers, the death toll was
hailed as a figure that was “lower than expected.” Thus…acceptable, by
Bush Administration/corporate media standards. After all, only one of them
was an American, the rest were Iraqis civilians and British soldiers. The
gamble of using the polling day in Iraq to justify the ongoing failed
occupation of Iraq has apparently paid off, if you watch only mainstream
media....(full article)

Are Iraqi Elections a
Panacea?by Ivan Eland

President Bush, in his second inaugural
address, used soaring idealistic rhetoric to tell us that he was going to
democratize the Middle East. After the recent Iraqi elections, he declared
a triumphant moment in that effort. Yet those elections—with their
predictable results—may not mean much for the future of Iraq and might,
when combined with other U.S. policies in the Islamic world, reinforce
world perceptions of U.S. foreign policy as hypocritical....(full
article)